Alcohol with breakfast?

Every week the founder of Cambridgeshire Wine School seeks out the best wines to accompany Living’s recipes.

Let’s face it – breakfast is not usually the time to drink more wine. Fine if you have woken up in a nice hotel and fancy a Champagne breakfast as a decadent treat (the sharp acidity of Champagne cuts through breakfast eggs rather well).

But since the goal of this column is to recommend drinks matching the food ideas on the opposite page, let’s start by talking about fruit juice.

Pear juice (or even sparkling pear cider) would go well with the sweeter breakfasts mentioned here – the chocolate granola and yoghurt smoothie. It will also match the oaty yoghurt because of the added honey and cranberries.

The scones are far more savoury in character so this could be the time to pull out some tomato juice if you like it, especially with added Worcester sauce.

And then there’s the delicious-looking breakfast stack. In common with most middle-aged men, my eye is always drawn to bacon and eggs.

Actually the breakfast stack would go surprisingly well with some inexpensive claret and I could be tempted (never mind the time of day). I can recommend a really good one that always surprises people at my Bordeaux tastings – Chateau Pey La Tour 2009.